Developing community participation.

The Area:

Termoneeny Community Group is based in a large rural area within the Magherafelt District Council area. Its catchment area covers the Gulladuff and Knockloughrim wards within the council area, and sizeable parts of the Maghera, Bellaghy and Moyola wards.

Local Environment

The environment is pleasing and at present suffers from very low levels of pollution. Though in recent years there has been much talk of plans to locate a super-dump in the area, which has caused a great deal of community concern. Generally the roads are in very poor condition and are unsuitable for the heavy volume of traffic.

Level Of Deprivation

The socio-economic profile suggests that the area has a higher than average level of deprivation, placing its rank within the top 22.3% of relatively deprived wards within Northern Ireland.

Youthful Population

The socio-economic profile also suggests that the area has a youthful population structure and that the lower than average proportion of people in the 25-74 year age group would tend to suggest that the area has been prone to a period of out- migration.

At the time of the 1991 Census (NI) there was a marginally higher than average proportion of males located in the study area.

Religious make-up of the community The 1991 Census (NI) figures found that in terms of the religious make-up of the local community, 62.1% of people described themselves as Roman Catholic, 34.3% as

Protestant and 0.2% as belonging to no religion while 3.4% of respondents did not answer.

Employment

The area’s main industries are agriculture and quarrying. With the decline in agriculture over recent year, more and more people leave the area to find employment, often travelling daily to Belfast, Ballymena, Cookstown and other locations.

Public Transport Provision

Public transport is virtually non-existent except for the school bus service and as a result many people experience social isolation and lack of access to services. In a recent community audit, rural transport ranked highly as an issue of local concern.

Community Infrastructure

For many years community life, like that in similar parishes that are predominantly Catholic/Nationalist was dependant upon the activities organised by the Church and the local Gaelic Athletic Club as well as Camogie Club.

Recent years have seen a large degree of capacity building in the local community with the emergence of Lavey Women’s Group, Lavey Community Playgroup and the Mothers and Toddlers Group

The local Society of St Vincent de Paul, continues to play a major role in helping to alleviate poverty and social isolation.

Our Community Group:

The inaugural meeting of our group took place in March 1998. Our initial objective was to investigate social and environmental projects in the area, which would improve the quality of life for local people.

We choose the name Termoneeny Community Group because Termoneeny is the name of the Church of Ireland parish and it is the original name of the Catholic parish now known as Lavey.

The group having established itself over the past four years has an active committee of 20 members, aged from 14- 65, with a good gender balance and range of experience and skills.

Achievements:

Great effort is made by the group to ensure participation by all marginalized groups in our activities and at our public events. We especially try to include people who experience social isolation and/or suffer from disability. Our events have included: traditional craft nights, book launches and moss walks. Three bus trips have taken in the Ulster History Park, the craft fair in Letterkenny and historical sites in Derry City and Donegal. A total of 150 people have benefited from participation on these trips.

Traditional Craft Nights

These events have been held on the last day of January since 1999 and include demonstrations of the traditional craft of making St. Brigid’s Crosses — local experts teaching many fumbling fingers how to create varied styles of rush crosses. The local hall is prepared for the event to create the atmosphere of a traditional Irish home — with an open turf fire, crane and kettle, old prints on the wall and Tilley lamps. The evening ends with supper, recitations, singing, music and dancing. Everyone who has attended the traditional crafts nights have congratulated the group for giving the community an opportunity to learn about local customs in a very friendly setting.

Soft Walks — To the local Peat Moss

Since 1999 these events have been taking place on a Sunday afternoon in the month of August. The walks are led by our group members and weather permitting, attract good crowds including people of all ages. Our last outing saw 60 participants of all take part. On arrival at our destination — Annacramph Moss, water was boiled on a turf fire and tea and biscuits were served. Proceedings included a turf cutting demonstration with different types of turf spades being used and everyone being invited to try their hand at turf cutting. This was followed by story telling and singing.

Environmental Enhancement Schemes:

Historical Publications

Our book launches have proved to he successful events and notable also for cross-community support Like all the other historical events which the group organised, these events were extremely well attended.

Developing Historical Interest

The group has found through its experiences, that the community is particularly interested in local history and traditions as well as the conservation of sites of local interest. With this in mind, plans are being made to develop the historical as well as cultural aspect of our activities, including the archiving of old documents and photographs as well as the preservation of oral traditions by recording interviews with the more senior members of our community.

Community Pantomime

Music Pilot Project

Benefits:

We feel that many people living in our local community have benefited from our endeavours. All the people who attended, organised and performed any function in the course of our activities state that they have gained immensely from their participation.

Continuous Learning Process

Termoneeny community group is well pleased with its achievements so far hut accepts that there is still much to do and learn. Our group has learned that to function more successfully, we need to acquire adequate premises and much needed equipment as well as having paid staff put in place for the purposes of capacity building, project development and effective administration.

For the group it is particularly disappointing that cross-community participation has not fully developed, though the local history hook launches have proved successful by ensuring a high level of cross-community interaction. We realise that our meeting venue, a hall belonging to the Ancient Order of Hibernians is far from ideal, and that it cannot he viewed as a neutral venue. This is a situation that we constantly review.

Community Audit

We hope that the Community Audit commissioned by the group when published, will assist us in our medium to long-term development in the area (5 year). By assessing and identifying the needs of the area, Termoneeny Community Group will be able to prioritise our goals and objectives in relation to community development and participation for this period.